Law&Crime Sidebar - Lil Durk WALKS FREE in Murder-for-Hire Case

Episode Date: September 15, 2026

Grammy-winning rapper Lil Durk, whose real name is Durk Banks, was acquitted of federal murder-for-hire charges in Los Angeles. A 2022 gas station shooting targeted rival rapper Quando Rondo and ultimately left Rondo’s cousin, Saviay’a Robinson, dead. While co-defendants Deandre Wilson and David Lindsey were convicted on related stalking charges, the jury found reasonable doubt regarding Banks' involvement. Law&Crime's Jesse Weber breaks down what led to this bombshell verdict and what lies ahead for the artist with LA Magazine reporter Taylor Parise.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code SIDEBAR at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/sidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson, Heather Berzak & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrimeTwitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rapper Lil Durk was just handed a major victory in his federal trial, acquitted of murder for higher charges in connection with the shooting of a reported rival that ended in the life of just an innocent passenger. But why did the jury vote this way? What does it mean for Durk, who's about to go on trial for a second time next month by the same prosecutors? Well, I'm going to bring on an LA magazine reporter who was inside that courtroom for this entire trial. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber.

Dirk and I made an agreement that we would make history with the greatest verdict in this country. And it happened today. Dirk is not guilty of all charges. There's really no other way to say it than what you just heard from defense attorney Drew Finlay. Rapper Lil Dirk has to be breathing a sigh of relief after a monumental verdict. After a two-week trial in Los Angeles, which even saw Kanye West and machine gun Kelly in attendance. A jury acquitted the Grammy Award winner in his federal murder for hire trial. Prosecutors had claimed that Lil Durk, real-named Durk Banks, was the one who orchestrated a hit on a reported rival rapper, Cuando Rondo,

that resulted in a shooting that actually took the life of Rondo's cousin, Savaya Robinson. This was back in 2022. Jury deliberated for three days, found him not guilty of federal charges of conspiracy, stalking, resulting in death and murder for hire. Now, prosecutors, they'd allege that he organized the payment, the travel of hitmen from Chicago to L.A. to kill Rondo as a form of revenge for the killing of Dirk's friend, King Vonn. He was killed back in 2020, reportedly by an associate of Rondos. And prosecutors presented all different kinds of digital evidence and witness testimony of this

shooting on Rondo's escalade near the Beverly Center shopping mall. This was at a gas station out in Los Angeles. But Robinson, Robinson was the one who was gunned down. Prosecutor Ian Yaninello, in closing argument, said that this was a criminal agreement, that it was a result of culmination of years of long planning, that the defendants celebrated after this shooting, said that, quote, this case is not about rap. It's not about celebrity. It's about Savaya Robinson.

They are guilty on all counts. But clearly, something was left. lacking in the prosecution's case when it came to Lil Durk, which I'm going to get into in a moment, but his defense attorney Brian Steele said in closing arguments regarding reasonable doubt, quote, told the jury, you need one. I'm going to talk about many. And he specifically even regarded a key prosecution witness where he said, how dare they put him in front of you and continue this story? They know it's a lie. Now, while Durk was acquitted, same can't be said for his co-defendants, his alleged co-conspirators, DeAndre Wilson, David Lindsay.

They were convicted of conspiracy to commit stalking, stalking using a dangerous weapon, and stalking resulting in death. They were acquitted of murder for higher charges. But why did this happen? And what does this mean for Lil Durk? Because let me tell you, this is not the end of his legal saga. He's got another federal trial right around the corner. Second chance for the same federal prosecutors, it's going to be the same team.

And before I bring in somebody who was in that. courtroom for this entire trial can give perspective on why the jury voted the way they did. Let's not forget, again, Lil Durk faces another federal trial scheduled for next month, and this is around racketeering. So there's murder in aid of racketeering and apparently also a firearms offense. And this became its own separate issue because his lawyers were able to get those charges, those allegations severed from the trial that just happened. This new trial is reportedly about entirely separate allegations that stretched across state lines in years, alleged involvement in a shooting in Chicago, an attempted murder in Atlanta,

that Lil Durk allegedly runs a criminal enterprise made up of members from his music label, only the family, that they allegedly engage in violent crimes and drug trafficking. And there was drama there, too, by the way, because prosecutors filed this new indictment. They wanted to get these new charges into the trial that just had. happened and the defense objected. They said this is totally unfair. This is last minute. You know what district court judge Michael Fitzgerald said at the time? Because he was quite critical of the prosecution here. I'm going to read you verbatim from the hearing. He said, quote, you think that you'll have a better chance to win if the Chicago incident is tried with

the Los Angeles murder. I don't doubt that. It's obvious. But that, frankly, you treat that as a feature and I treat that as a bug. That is my concern. I think it's going to be unfair to these gentleman. And you, of course, couldn't care less about that, which I get. If I was still a prosecutor, I would have the attitude that you do. But that is, I am not, and I am here to make sure that both sides have a fair trial. Went on to say, it's not as if the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois had become highly suspicious of Mr. Banks and his music business, and therefore had been investigating this for years. Rather, this very much is the result of what happened in Los Angeles. And this third superseding indictment, indisputably, is just

an attempt, I'll say, from a legal point of view, a very clever one, of having the Chicago tale wag the Los Angeles dog. Wow, some colorful commentary there, but quite critical. And ultimately, the court allowed for these newly filed charges, these allegations to be severed, to be filed separately, to now be part of a new trial. That was a win for the defense. And Judge Fitzgerald wrote in his decision, quote, it has been and remains the court's intention that the Los Angeles trial will include all admissible evidence that is not

unduly prejudicial. You know how we talk about the dangers of this world a lot here on Sidebar? This is something that I don't think a lot of people are thinking about. Did you know that your personal data is being published on sites all the time, all around the internet by data brokers? Yeah, they gather info like your full name, your social security number, your shopping habits, your phone number. Here's the good news. Incogmy, our sponsor helps remove that data from over 420 harmful sites when you sign up. And with an unlimited plan, their new exposure scanner, gathers your personal data and puts it all in one place where you can decide what's removed, which means you don't got to go looking around for all the places where your data is hiding.

Incogni also gives you an overview of the whole removal process, allowing you to dig deeper into each site request. Look, I was shocked to find out that databases had my information. Now, the good news is, thankfully, within the days, incognity was taking them down. They can't harm you if they can't find you. Use code sidebar at the link below, get 60% off an annual plan that is incogny.com slash sidebar. So let's get back to what just happened in court, why the jury voted the way they did, because it is important to understand, as we're about to go into the second trial, what was missing from the prosecution's case? What does this mean for Little Dirk? Was this mean for his defense? Now, before we go any further, I'm going to bring on

somebody who was in that courtroom for the whole trial, amazing reporting, by the way. I just want to read you quickly a portion of the statement from Savaya Robinson's family. It says the family of Savaya Robinson, respect the jury's verdict and appreciate the time and careful attention. The jurors devoted to this case. The criminal justice system requires the government to prove guilt beyond the reasonable doubt, a very high standard. The jury has spoken under that standard. And then the remainder of the statement talks about a civil case, how it's a separate proceeding. There's a different legal standard that they feel there's ample evidence for a jury to find that.

that Dirk Banks was responsible for Mr. Robinson's death under that standard. So we'll see which way that goes, but I just wanted to make reference to that statement. Okay, so like I said, I have somebody who was there for all aspects of this trial. Taylor Perrice from LA Magazine, got a chance to speak with her earlier. Take a look. So Taylor Peres, thank you for coming on. Good to see you. As somebody who was in that courtroom every day for this trial, this verdict comes down.

You surprised? I think I kind of expected it, but at the same time, I was surprised. This was the trial that we were all talking about every day, long days, and what we thought was going to happen changed every day because the prosecution was strong and the defense was strong. So depending on who you heard from that day, we thought maybe it would flip, but no, ultimately he was acquitted. I think what was the key point that we weren't surprised about is we never saw specific payment

in this murder for hire, and that's kind of what the prosecution's case rested on was proving this murder for hire and they just didn't do it. Let me ask you about that. I mean, what do you think was lacking in the prosecution's case? Because from a surface level, when we covered this case and when people talked about this case, there was communication, right? There was an alleged digital trail connecting him to or allegedly connecting him to this shooting.

I mean, was that something that the prosecution focused on? Yeah, I think there were texts that definitely insinuated he was connected to this, this hit on Cuondo Rondo. We have a text that said, don't book no flights under my name. We have a text that said he knows OTF Jam is about ready to snitch. And I think the question is why would he be ready to snitch if there wasn't, if there was nothing to snitch about. So I think that that was something that the prosecution did show. However, I think with reasonable doubt, the jury was maybe looking for a specific like confirmation outright saying, I want you to do this or I will pay you for this. And we just didn't see an explicit admission in these text messages.

And in terms of the defense, what did they do? They basically put it on his assistant, Kavana Grant, that he was the one responsible for this? Yeah, he was Dirk's right-hand man. He had a lot of control over Dirk's finances. At least he had access to credit cards and resources. He also, they brought up his relationship to King Vaughn, who this was allegedly a revenge plot for, who was Kvon Grant's, essentially his cousin, close relationship, and he also controlled Kvon's grants finances. So they kind of set Kvon Grant up to be this mastermind, whereas the prosecution said he was just doing what he was told because he was the assistant to Dirk Banks.

He testified, right? He did testify, yes. What was that like? That started off really strong for the prosecution. But when it came, you can tell that he is smart. You can tell that he knew he was smart. And so when it came for cross-examination, he had a major attitude with the defense. And in his jail calls, which were played for the court, he also had that attitude of, I'm smarter than everyone else.

He essentially said he was smarter than the prosecution in these jail calls that were played. And I think the defense used that to break down his credibility and kind of show that he was capable of something like this. Our audience knows we follow a lot of big trials, particularly in the industry. And Brian Steele and Drew Findling are no strangers to people who follow the cases that we cover. What were they like in court? What was their demeanor like? What were their arguments like? You don't need me to tell you that sometimes juries, they can really, you know, focus in on a defense attorney and how they present themselves.

I mean, look at the Lindsay Clancy case. There were jurors who came out now and said they really, they were sticking to Kevin Redington. So talk to me about how they performed, how they presented. Were there any memorable moments from Brian Steele or Drew Finlay? Yeah, I mean, to bring up a memorable moment, there is a memorable moment. a point where straight out of a movie, Brian Steele stands up and said, this is outrageous to a redirect from the prosecution of, I believe, OTF Jam or Casey Hester. And the judge looks at him and said, this is outrageous that you're saying what's outrageous in front of a jury. So that

was definitely, like, quite the moment from Brian Steele, objecting every single line of questioning from the prosecution on these redirects. But I think Brian Steele and Drew Finling are, they were very good at putting up this defense for their client. They very much switched their tactics, depending on who they're talking to. So they're more respectful when they're speaking to law enforcement, when they're speaking to the judge, when they speak directly to the jury. Whereas when they were speaking to these witnesses, these was prosecution's witnesses who were essentially already had

admitted, pleaded guilty to these murders. They treated them like criminals. And that is very much how they wanted the jury to view these three people to break down, tear down their credibility. So you see them coming in really hot with these specific witnesses. you see them almost poking at their buttons trying to get them to, specifically with Kavon Grant, trying to get him to have this attitude that ultimately made him look bad. So it was a very intense thing to watch the cross-examinations of these witnesses.

But why were the co-conspirators in this case, alleged co-conspirators, DeAndre Wilson, David Lindsay, why were they convicted of conspiracy to commit stalking and stalking? What happened there? So I think what was most important with their conviction was cell phone data. Their cell phones were shown at the scene of the crime. Their cell phones were shown to be consistently following Cuando Rondo or Taekwon Bowman. So you see them at the scene. You see them fly out with only the shirts on their back is what the prosecution had alleged. You see them with no bags. You see them drive to Los Angeles. And there was essentially this map of data of their location. And I think that's ultimately why the the likely convicted them on those stalking charges, whereas where for the murder for hire, we don't ever see a explicit murder for hire text message or wire payment. And so that's why those maybe didn't hold so much weight for the jury. And to be clear, the counts that they were convicted of, so the first two, some of them

are three to five years in prison. There's another one that carries a possible life sentence. What was the defense? What were their defense attorneys arguing? Yeah. So D'Andre Wilson, he was the passenger defense. So his attorney argued that he, when he flew out to Los Angeles, he only had two hours notice. He had no idea what he was going for, and he was simply a passenger.

And once he landed in California, he was essentially at the will of these people who were planning to kill Cuando Rondo. And he was scared, and he didn't know how to get, he didn't know how to get a flight home on his own. Therefore, he was just a passenger. He was not knowingly involved. And then we have David Lindsay's attorney who there is video footage of the prosecution is alleging is him. His clothing allegedly matches the actual shooting and then a place he was

seen after a in and out where they quote, prosecution alleges they celebrated. So his defense was essentially there was no explicit DNA found. There were no fingerprints found. And David Lindsay was not necessarily connected to this group before this hit. So why would he kill for people he didn't know? That seemed to be what both of their defense attorneys were fighting. What did you learn about the beef. Like, what did you learn about the relationship between Lil Durk and Kwondo Rondo? I mean, was it established? Did you have questions about it? What did you understand about the relationship here about what may have sparked this? What Wilson felt about this? What Lindsay felt about this? I mean, that's a key focus in this case. It's a big,

it's a longer story than just one day. Yeah, I think why the passenger defense didn't work as well with DeAndre Wilson is you see how close he is to this group. He seemed to be in on this beef. He is in group text messages where they discuss it. So the beef seemed to be going very strong for years and years and years. There was beef with Cuando Rondo and King Vaughn before King Vaughn was ultimately killed by Timothy Leakes. And then we have two years of these group messages where this group of people is just grieving King Vaughn, the rapper. And they're, they seem all very emotionally processing, very angry. I mean, you see it in the music.

So the defense did the prosecution try to use the music as evidence. I don't know if that necessarily worked out for them. But if you listen to the music, you see the history there between these two rappers on both sides. And there's music videos that show it as well. It's very clear that there was a lot of animosity between these two people. And what's really sad is somebody was caught up in the mix who was an innocent party, Savaya Robinson, right? Cousin, Cuando Rondo.

Was Savi Robinson's family there during this? Yeah, Savaya Robinson's mom was there for the first half of the trial every single day. There was a couple times she had to step out because we witnessed this TMZ video of her son being pulled from the car after he was shot, and it was horrific to watch as someone who wasn't personally connected to this person. And she had to get up and leave a few times, but she was there. She was targeted a few times by these Dirk fans, these crowd outside of the courthouse, a couple times people inside the courthouse and the gallery. People were making comments towards her. And she sat there with her head held high and she wanted to be there to support her son and to let it be known that her son is the victim in this.

And we didn't see her at the end of the trial, but at the first half, she was there every day. So the family wasn't there during the verdict? Not there during the verdict, not in the Los Angeles courtroom. What was it like for that verdict to be to come down? What was Lil Durk's reaction? What was his defense attorney's reaction? What were the prosecutor's reaction? What was it like?

It was an intense day. And it was, this verdict came at 5 p.m. So we were ready to go home. It was 4.30. I was thinking no verdict was coming. I think his family was. Everyone did not expect to get a note at 4.30 saying a verdict was reached. So even while we were waiting outside the courtroom to go in for the verdict, the family of Dirk was silent, very silent, very anxious clearly. And then we go inside and we see Dirk, it seems to be coping with humor. He's just, joking with Drew Finlay, but he's very antsy and he's constantly fidgeting. And when the verdict is being read for his co-defendants, he's swiveling in his cherry seems very nervous. We see the verdict hit DeAndre Wilson very hard as he knows that he's being convicted on these three charges. He seems very, very upset, very disappointed. We don't see much emotion from David Lindsay. He kind of is a little more stoic. But when it came time for Dirks, the verdict read for Durk, silence until every not guilty plea, we heard gasps. We heard it clap at one point. Family did a fairly good job, staying composed, but Dirk, by the end of it, he was in tears, his mother was in tears, India Royal.

His wife was holding his mother. And even his defense team seemed very emotional. They were hugging him. They were, it was a very emotional, very emotional moment for everyone in the courtroom. Was the courtroom generally during the course of this trial split? I mean, did you have supporters for Little Dirk? Did you have supporters for Cuando Rondo? I mean, what would it look like in there? To be honest, I mostly saw supporters for Dirk in the gallery. We had almost the entire side for Dirk was filled with family the entire time. We had Kanye West show up. We had Machine Gun Kelly show up, like a lot of supporters on Dirk side. And then I was sitting over on the opposite side of the gallery. And we have a lot of fans that were coming in here. There was lines every single day that people were waiting just in case they could get into the room. A lot of people would come in just to lay eyes on Lil Dirk and then leave. So it was it was a very, interesting case. I don't think I've ever seen a courtroom only be full of fans before. What was it like for, you know, MGK or Kanye West to be in that courtroom? What were they doing? How were they responding? Was everybody staring at them? What was it like?

Everyone was staring at Kanye for sure. Everyone took a peek. Machine Gun Kelly, honestly, he was kind of, he seemed kind of normal. He was chatting with the family. He seemed very comfortable with Lil Dirk's crowd. And then Kanye was very hard to read. He was very quiet. stood straight at stared straight ahead the entire time and he he didn't stay for too long but yeah there were definitely eyes on him yeah he's a very hard to read in general conya west very unpredictable character this is not the end of the story for anybody knows this is not the end of the story with little dirk he faces a separate racketeering trial that i want to ask you about because first of all um first assistant u.s attorney bill assaili released uh this statement uh after the verdicts it said

Quote, today, the jury delivered just to the family of Savaya Robinson finding defendants DeAndre Wilson and David Lindsay guilty of stalking, resulting in Mr. Robinson's death. While we were disappointed with the jury's decision regarding Dirk Banks, aka Little Dirk, we look forward to presenting our evidence at his second trial scheduled for October 5th when he will face racketeering murderer and firearms charges. What is that case about? How does that relate to what we just saw? And I guess the most important question, Taylor, is, are you going to be there for that one? I will definitely be there. It's supposed to start on October 5th, so I've already cleared my calendar for that week. But as far as what this is about, there's a lot of confusion, I think, on what this is about.

People are confused why he's not free right away. We do maybe expect for them to the defense to ask for a second reconsideration on bond. But as of right now, this is a racketeering charge. So this is about alleged gang relations with only the family or OTF, which is this music label, that the prosecution is also alleging has gang activity and gang violence. And so while some people are alleging it's only based out of murders in Chicago, it's actually also involved tied into Savaya Robinson's murder. And so the prosecution is going to be trying to prove that OTF has these gang affiliations. And it's this organization that is a criminal organization. and they're going to have to prove that Dirk is at the center of it all

and that these actions or these consequences like Saviara's murder are as a result of this gang activity. So you're going to see overlap, right? You're going to see overlap, for sure. And I also think we're going to see a lot of new information. The prosecution wasn't allowed to bring into this trial. So I'm very fascinated to see what more they have and if they're able to convince a jury about Little Dirk's involvement this time.

Is this the same teams, same prosecutor, same defense attorneys going at it? again? Yes, same prosecution, same judge, same defense team for all three of the co-defendants. The only thing we're getting is a new jury. And in your opinion, in your opinion from what you see, strength of the prosecution's case here versus what we just saw? I honestly have no idea. I do think the prosecution, even though they didn't get that guilty verdict with Lil Durk, I think they did a great job in their arguments. And I think they have a very strong team. So that's why I'm very interested to see if there's new information they're going to be bringing that connects Dirk more directly than they were able to prove in this first trial. So Tela Porese, tell everybody

where they can follow you, how they can see your up-to-date reporting on this. I mean, it's the reason we couldn't believe you were fantastic during the course of this. So just let everybody know if they want to see which the work you've been doing, and particularly with this trial coming on, where they can find you. Yeah, so we have the full breakdowns at LAMag.com in very in-depth articles and then on X we do more live updates and that's going to be LA MAG on X and Taylor Paris on X. Say hi to Lauren Conlin for me. She's one of my favorites. So great. Thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me. And that's all we have for right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please

subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcast. You can also check us out on NBC's Peacock as well. If you want to follow me, X Instagram, my News Nation show, Jesse Web, live Monday through Friday 11 p.m. Eastern. I'll see you next time, everybody.